Kinematic subpopulations in dwarf spheroidal galaxies

Ural, Uğur and Wilkinson, Mark I. and Koch, Andreas and Gilmore, Gerard and Beers, Timothy C. and Belokurov, V. and Wyn Evans, N. and Grebel, E.K. and Vidrih, Simon and Zucker, D. B. (2009) Kinematic subpopulations in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 402 (2). pp. 1357-1368. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

We present new spectroscopic data for 26 stars in the recently discovered Canes Venatici I (CVn I) dwarf spheroidal galaxy, obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph North (GMOS-N) on the Gemini North telescope. We use these data to investigate the recent claim of the presence of two dynamically inconsistent stellar populations in this system. While we find no evidence for kinematically distinct subpopulations in our sample, we also show that the available kinematic data set in CVnI is likely too small to draw robust conclusions about its subpopulations. We are, however, able to obtain a mass estimate for CVn I that is consistent with all available data, including previously published data. We discuss possible differences between our sample and the earlier data set, and study the general detectability of subpopulations in small kinematic samples. We conclude that, in the absence of additional supporting observational evidence (e.g. metallicity gradients), subpopulations in small kinematic samples (typically fewer than 100 stars) should be treated with caution, as their identification depends on multiple parameters and rarely produces a signal at a high confidence level. It is therefore essential to explicitly determine the statistical significance of any suggested subpopulation.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100/3103
Subjects:
?? astronomy and astrophysicsspace and planetary science ??
ID Code:
83402
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
02 Dec 2016 16:30
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 16:38